Former prison officer cries for justice
A prison warder, dismissed from Malawi Prison Service (MPS) in September 2015, has expressed anger at authorities for victimizing him because his is a ‘poor person’.
Peterkins Lipenga, formerly of Zomba Central Prison, claimed in an interview that his superiors did not disclose to him results of a disciplinary hearing after an Appointments and Disciplinary Committee (ADC) of the Prison Service Commission reinstated him on October 13 2014.
Lipenga was, earlier in 2013, interdicted on charges that he brought a prohibited item—a mobile phone—to a prisoner on
July 9 2012. But Lipenga was reinstated on October 13 2014, according to letters Nation on Sunday has seen.
However, Lipenga’s joy was short-lived after another letter, which Nation on Sunday has also seen, followed, dismissing him from service.
Lipenga wondered: “Where on earth can one get interdicted and summoned to a disciplinary hearing, but later have the interdiction lifted and get reinstated with an assurance that you will be compensated your salary.
“But shortly, you get another letter, summoning you to yet another disciplinary hearing on the same charge and later get fired?”
But MPS spokesperson Smart Maliro argued in an interview that Lipenga did not show up at disciplinary hearings—one in Lilongwe and the other in Zomba.
But Lipenga said he was shocked by his former employers’ statement that he did not show up for hearing, wondering what they wanted to achieve ‘by telling lies’.
Said Lipenga: “I attended both hearings—one in Lilongwe and the other in Zomba after they appealed. The letters should have expressly stated it that I never attended hearings.”
But Maliro insisted Lipenga did not show up at the hearings despite the fact that all communications regarding this issue the Nation On Sunday has seen do not mention about his absence at the hearings.
But Lipenga got the shock of his life when the Prison Service Commission on November 25 2014, in less than a month after his reinstatement, summoned him to another disciplinary hearing, followed by the dismissal in September 2015.
Lipenga claimed he is a victim of justice miscarriage, “but I am a poor, jobless and downtrodden man who cannot afford a lawyer”.
